The HIT MACHINE Surfer School !

(David Vasser has a 35 year background in broadcasting and marketing.  He's been involved in online marketing since 1998 when searching for a better way to sell a "How-To" book he'd written.)

      (David Vasser at Work)

In a relatively short period of time I went from no traffic at all to the current position of being able to turn on or turn off an incredible steam of visitors to any website I want at no out of pocket expense.  The proof that I can do this is over ONE-BILLION hits to just one of my numerous rotator pages.  Click here to see it.  The total hits to the rotator is at the bottom.  This screen shot was taken April 12, 2006.  This is the rotator I use the most. 

I get hits by several means, none of which are SPAM.  (I hate junk emails, probably more than you do!)

The two major components of my current traffic strategy are search engine optimization and harvesting free traffic on traffic exchanges.  The traffic from traffic exchanges boosts my total page hits, which in turn improves my search rankings.  Occasionally I'll get a sale from traffic exchange exposure too.  It seems to take at least fifty times more page hits to sell my products on the traffic exchanges than through targeted search engines.  WHY?  Most people surfing the exchanges are there to sell their product, not to buy yours!  The focus of this page is how to maximize your return for your work on the traffic exchanges.  Make no mistake about it, it is work and if you want to get the greatest benefit with the least amount of effort, read on.  No work equals no results! 

No one offered me the advice I'm giving you in this mini-course for free.  I learned from experience what worked and what didn't.  I read lots of marketing eBooks too.   

There were lots of so-called "gurus" offering to sell their traffic secrets at $19.95 a copy and there is one even now who is now charging way more than $100.  The one charging way more than $100 guarantees "3,000 hits a month" if you'll just buy his eBook on using traffic exchanges and then use his method.  When I saw this I laughed so hard my side ached!  I guarantee you'll get more hits using my methods for free than you'll get using his methods for $149 or whatever he's charging this week.  Some aspects of our systems may actually be exactly the same techniques, but I won't ever know for sure because I'm not giving him $149 to find out.

I've often been told I should sell the information on this very page in an e-Book too, but I'd rather just keep building massive traffic downlines.  Frankly all I hope to get out of sharing this information is hoping you'll sign up for a few extra exchanges using referral links from The Hit Machine once you learn how to get better organized and maximize your surfing time. 

First a few definitions must be clarified:

• AUTOMATIC TRAFFIC EXCHANGE = A traffic exchange that does not require active participation by the user.  You can walk away if you want and still earn traffic.  (Often called "dirty" traffic.)

• MANUAL TRAFFIC EXCHANGE = A traffic exchange that requires active participation by the user who must click on a color, number, letter, word or symbol in order to obtain credit for the page viewed, or to advance to the next page. 

• TARGET URL =  The website address you post to receive hits on the traffic exchanges. 

• REFERRAL URL = The website address you advertise to recruit new members into your traffic building downlines.  Refer enough members and you'll only have to surf the minimum requirement to stay active.  Your downline will earn most of your hits for you!

• RATIO = A 2:1 ratio means that after you view two pages you have earned one view of your page displayed to someone else.    1:1 may sound much  better initially but it takes much longer to get your hits back on a 1:1 exchange.  There are 3:2 exchanges where you get four hits back for every six pages surfed and then some 5:1 exchanges where you have to surf five pages to get one hit back.  The 5:1 exchanges usually have more generous referral commissions or other features to make them more appealing.

• ROTATOR = One "Master URL" that leads to a site which is programmed to send the visitor to one of many target URL's you wish to ROTATE and have programmed into the rotator service.  A very valuable tool.  Unfortunately rotators are often misused to sneak sites into exchanges that ordinarily would never have been approved. 

• PRO EXCHANGE = One that charges a fee to participate with no free level of service available. 

• SURF FOR CASH EXCHANGE = One that you can join for free and get free traffic, but which also offers the "opportunity" to "earn" money if you "invest" a fee which you WILL lose when the exchange fails or closes.  More on surf for cash later.    

Some people constantly belittle AUTOMATIC exchanges as absolutely worthless.  Actually I am convinced that they are far from it.  Through careful analysis and tracking we have found that (surprisingly to me might I add) automatic exchanges can be somewhat effective for a limited number of uses.  Automatic exchanges do not sell products as well as manual exchanges, but they can be effective as a way to obtain signups into free programs such as other traffic exchanges or newsletters.  They also generate tons of "unique" visitors which is good to boost your rankings in the legitimate search engines.  To emphasize that automatic traffic exchanges are not as completely devoid of worth as some would have you believe, allow me to me explain that in 2003 I won a referral contest at MOJO HITS simply by displaying a custom designed MOJO HITS referral page exclusively on automatic traffic exchanges!  Winning first prize is always nice, but proving that the automatic exchanges can and indeed do work might have been the thing of greatest value I gained from the experience.  I also won round one of the 2006 Mobhits referral competition, but I used a combination of manual and auto exchanges for that contest because it was so close since this time I was competing against some traffic exchange owners like Binky Melnik who could throw tons of free traffic at their referral page spread over all the exchanges they owned.  I still won, but it was close. 

Perhaps of even greater importance to some webmasters than getting free signups is the fact that many search engines use complicated processes to determine search engine rankings.  Many of the more sophisticated search engines not only index your site content, but also examine your site's traffic ranking including total unique views and time spent viewing and other data regarding your site's traffic.  More and more people are using automatic exchanges to boost search ranking.  That is why you often see sites in automatic exchanges that don't look like they really belong there among all the usual MLM's, traffic exchange referral pages and randomizers.  Ever noticed a dental office, realtor or veterinarian web page in a traffic exchange?  Someone hired to boost search engine ranking for these "misfits" are using automatic exchanges to generate unique hits and they aren't expecting you to call for an appointment, buy a house or bring your dog in for their shots.  They simply want to improve their search index ranking, and it is proven that traffic exchanges work toward that goal. 

Another valuable aspect of the automatic exchanges is to use them to display pages or banners for which you get some sort of credit or payment in return.  For example, at the bottom of this page is a banner with a frame that says "Click here for free banner advertising."  That is a banner exchange banner.  I get credit for showing it to you here.  In return someone else will display one of my my banners on their site.  If you wanted to, you could put banners from two or three or even twenty banner exchanges on one page and then send traffic to that banner page in the automatic exchanges.  You'd rack up tons of banner displays for your banners!  In fact, so many people were doing exactly that very thing that it drove some exchanges to specifically prohibit pages of that type now.  These pages with nothing but a long row of banners on them are sometimes called "Banner Farm" pages.  By using banner exchanges you do risk than many of your banner displays will be on auto exchanges, but some will be displayed on manual exchanges and even on much more highly ranked websites than yours through traditional website visits!  These banners count as "LINKS IN" to the search engines when they find one, which also improves your search ranking! 

• Do you take advantage of this?  Some manual traffic exchanges give you manual exchange credits for showing your referral page for their site.  Some don't care where you show it either.  So when their terms allow, it is perfectly fine to post your referral page for the manual exchange in an auto exchange and let the automatic surfers earn you easy and free manual traffic!  Be sure to read the terms carefully to make certain the practice is permissible with the exchanges whose referral page you wish to use in this manner.

See, I told you automatic traffic exchanges were far from worthless!  Has what I've offered so far given you any ideas on how quickly and cheaply you can easily increase views of your site?  Well, keep reading for more!

The Automatic Exchanges eat up website bandwidth allotments like a starving troll, so I post mostly referral links to affiliate programs there.  That way the auto surfers are burning up some other webmaster's bandwidth instead of mine.  I do post some of my free signups on auto surfs though, like The Hit Machine mini-site you are viewing now.  However, I mainly post links to my own websites on manual exchanges.  Sometimes I post my own sites in automatic exchanges.  It depends on what I need to accomplish.

You'll get no argument from me!  I agree that manual traffic exchanges do sell products better!   This is because the user has to sit there and wait for the timer to run down before he can click to the next site.  Therefore they are going to see your page for a few seconds at the very least.  However, you should know that some manual traffic exchanges are more effective than others, and others still can be tricked by cheaters who possess special software applications into running pretty much like an automatic exchange.  Therefore, do be cautious about how much time you spend clicking for hits on manual exchanges that do not require you to click on an "action link" (a color, number, letter, symbol, photo or word) because these are the ones that I've been informed can be cheated the easiest.  I've been told that they all can be cheated but that it gets harder once you have to make a choice of "action" links.  It also isn't wise to invest a huge amount of time building up thousands of hits in a spanking new exchange with less that a thousand members.  Really, do you want each member to see your site 297 times a day?

Be very wary of any traffic exchange promising a cash return on an investment just for surfing.  Sure, I sign up on them as a free member and you should too.  I just never plan on collecting a cent and I never pay them money in order to "earn" as long as I can get the traffic for free!  I've seen literally hundreds and hundreds of traffic exchanges fail over the past eight years and many of them had "cash" or "money" or "earn" or "dollars" in their site name.  In fact, at the height of the Ponzi-surf craze it was not unusual to delete 20 or more failed exchanges from my system at each update.  It became more trouble than it was worth to try to keep up with them. 

If you invest money in one of these Cash Exchanges and the site goes offline, you just lost your entire "investment", if you can call it an investment.  In order to recoup your "investment" at a 2% payout, you'd have to surf their required quota every day for 50 days just to break even.  Should the exchange go broke before then, you'll lose your investment!  Also important is the minimum payout (which isn't usually displayed on the recruitment page but instead is buried in the fine print on the "terms" page.)  If the minimum payout is $50 and you are earning 2% per day on an investment of $10, and allowing that you surf the required daily quota, you would have to surf the required number of pages for 250 days just to get to the minimum payout.  Use EXTREME caution if you are "investing" in these Surf-For-Pay traffic exchanges.  I consider them about the most risky investment you can make on or off of the Internet.  Actually it is more of a gamble than an investment!  Periods come where a very elite group of these surf-for-cash outfits seem to be holding their own for a while and then "POOF" they are gone.  But picking which ones will last long enough to get your money back is a gamble.  I still like the odds at blackjack or craps better, and those games are actually fun.  But the same rule applies to both casino gambling and surf for cash exchanges, and that rule is "don't bet more than you can afford to lose!"

"The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back in your pocket."  (Will Rogers)

In early February of 2006 the auto-surf for cash with investment required outfit known as 12 Daily Pro.Com was for all practical purposes shut down when payment service Stormpay froze the 12 Daily Pro account.  With investigations in progress by Attorney Generals in at least two states, GA & NC, and probably other governmental entities as well, I'd say it is finished.  Ms. Charis Johnson owned it.  She lived in an apartment in Charlotte NC.  If she actually knows how to invest money to make up to a 44% return every 12 days, which is what her site promised to pay, then why did she live in an rental apartment instead of a mansion in the affluent Southpark or Ballantyne communities with the rest of the Charlotte investment wizards?  Perhaps thousands of people lost a lot of money on 12 Daily Pro.  The major TV news networks and local stations in the USA covered the story bringing bad press to the exchange industry in general.  The fallout from the 12 Daily Pro debacle brought the FBI, FTC and who knows who all down onto Stormpay and shortly thereafter Stormpay discontinued everything except their auction business.

Then in May 2005 Paypal "clarified" their terms.  Paypal has always frowned on any MLM type activities that used Paypal as a payment method.  You've probably heard horror stories from people about how Paypal "froze" their account for no good reason.  In many of these cases the accounts were probably frozen for receiving payments from MLM or Ponzi type activities. 

Since the StormPay debacle, Paypal is reinforcing their terms and stepping up enforcement.  Most traffic exchanges that use Paypal are responding to the Paypal terms by banning Ponzi exchanges from being advertised on their exchanges. 

The Traffic Exchange Directory has compiled a list of known Cash Scam/Ponzi Exchanges.  You can check their list by clicking HERE. 

In some cases exchange owners are also restructuring their own referral credit systems to have only one downline level.  This is very bad news for people like me with lots of members in my traffic exchange downlines who aren't on level 1.  This is being done by exchanges who have multi-level downlines and who pay cash commissions to members for referring new members who go pro, buy account upgrades or buy traffic packages.

• I don't surf for cash.  I just want the traffic.  Really, think about this for a minute!  Earning 20 cents a day surfing on a "cash scam exchange" isn't going to cover the electricity to run the computer for the 10 hours you would need to surf to earn that 20 cents.  Earning 20 cents a day is NOT why I got into Internet marketing.  If you think 20 cents a day sounds like a good return, you might want to consider a new career.   Domino's drivers earn at least minimum wage.

Even with the free surf-to-earn sites that do not require an investment to earn I'm afraid you will be disappointed if you are signing up and surfing to earn money because as much as we surf, we've never seen one of these pay off to us yet.  It hurts bad enough when an exchange goes offline with our hard earned hits unspent!  I'm certainly not letting them take my money with them too.  So just take the FREE traffic and be happy!  Just remember you want to earn traffic.  If by some miracle you should actually get paid by any traffic site under any circumstances that would just be a happy accident!  Or perhaps you won a surfing or referral contest and got paid.  But getting paid just for surfing is an accident that breaks the general rule that they never pay off.  Of course there are exceptions to that rule as there are to all rules.  What tends to happen 100% of the time is that the paid-to-surf sites will fail just about the same time that a significant number of members are reaching the payoff threshold.  Others announce they are dropping the paid-to-surf feature because it isn't workable as people start to approach the payoff point.  What a coincidence! 

Size of membership does not make a Ponzi-Surf or a free Paid-To-Surf exchange exempt from the rule.  One of the other notable failures was a top-ten autosurf site called Cashits, it died on June 22nd, 2004.  So size of membership and number of pages being surfed seems to have no bearing on the rule that all paid-to-surf sites will eventually fail.

Don't say I didn't warn you.  So remember, it is ok to use paid-to-surf programs, but not as a long term money making investment vehicle!   The important thing you want to earn is traffic!  Also, don't let your hits pile up there or in any traffic exchange unused!  Make sure you keep them assigned and getting hits to your site.  Sooner or later that "surf to earn" site is going to die, and usually it is sooner rather than later, so don't let them fail with a ton of hits unassigned!  What about the recent auto-surf-to-earn king "Studio Traffic" you ask?  It was no exception to the rule and closed down without a word of warning in early April 2006 taking everyone's money with it.  I earlier said here on this page, "I won't be surprised if it suddenly vanishes without warning too!"  It sure did!  The surf-for-cash sites that require an investment to earn an outrageous return are nothing more than cleverly disguised Ponzi schemes and as all Ponzi's will suffer a sudden collapse and lots of people will lose their money.

Pro Traffic Exchanges and Pro Upgrades are a completely different animal than Surf for Cash Exchanges!  Pro Traffic Exchanges are usually honest reliable programs.  By paying a one-time fee or a monthly fee you get many perks including extra hits, extra banners, longer page exposures, a more favorable surf ratio, random referrals added to your downline and rotation priority.  This may be worth the expense if you want the maximum return on your time spent surfing and building your downline.  We use several of these services with excellent results.  Remember also that any premium membership fees are tax deductible as a legitimate business advertising expense.  (That $50 you lost in the failed "surf-for-cash" exchange may not be!  Consult your tax accountant.) 

There is one disturbing Pro upgrade feature to watch out for that has started to pop up recently.  That feature is paying members being allowed to auto-surf on a manual exchange.  That benefit to pro members dilutes the value of a free member's hard earned manual hits.  It doesn't make them completely worthless, but still I'd rather not be seeing it happen at all.  It has made two otherwise good looking manual exchanges that I know of much less appealing to me and reduced my time spent surfing on them.  This new feature also has me checking the upgrade features on all manual exchanges.

It is not required to pay to earn traffic at any site we recommend, except two.  The first is 123 Clicks.  We highly recommend it because it is a Top 10 manual exchange with a minimum one time fee of $5 required to join.  You will get your money's worth with this pro exchange.  It has been in business for years and shows no sign of weakening.   The second we use is Rocky Mountain Hits which costs $1 per year to be a Level 1 member.  You can join Rocky Mountain free, but the free membership expires in 7 days and you'll need to pay $1 to stay active. Since 123 Clicks and Rocky Mountain don't pay for surfing activity they are PRO EXCHANGES and are not cash scams. They are something of a MLM too as they reward you for recruiting new members, but not for surfing.   There is a difference!     

END OF LESSON NUMBER 1. 

TAKE A BREAK HERE IF YOU NEED ONE!

The VII Golden Rules of The Hit Czar:

1.  Surf unto others as you would have them surf unto you. 

2.  Thou Target URL shalt load within 7 seconds on a 28.8 modem. 

3.  Thou shalt not use rotators which display someone else's banner ads.  Verily, thou shalt not use popup on entry ads either.

4.  Thou shalt discipline thyself to surf thy goal every single day. 

5.  What credits thou lost when thou missed surfing one day, thou shalt be condemned to make up the next. 

6.  Woe be unto all who attempt to cheat!  For they shall be condemned to spend eternity banned by the Pharisees who rule over the exchanges.

7.  Thou shalt not post thy start link from Hitpulse as thy target URL on AUTOHITS.

Ok, all kidding aside, let's look at each rule separately. 

• Rule 1 means that if you want people to look at your pages, look at theirs!  It also means that you will not post any FRAME BREAKING URL's that stop the surf or popup ads that likewise interfere with the surf.  Also, if you are using ROTATORS, don't use them to mask illegal pages.  

• Rule 2 is one of the most broken of the seven.  You may have a cable or DSL broadband connection yourself, but always remember that most people are surfing with a standard dial up connection.  In July of 2004 A.C. Nielsen Company released a report showing that the number of U.S. home broadband users had just overtaken the number of home dialup customers by 1%. The results were 51% broadband and 49% dialup.  These figures are for the USA only!  The rest of the world isn't there yet!  So for the 49% in the USA and the majority of surfers worldwide who are still on dialup, even with a 56k modem and a great connection they are only getting about 38k on average.  They never get 56k because 53k is the absolute maximum possible on a 56k modem, and most are doing far worse because of telephone line problems and Internet congestion.  If your page takes 7 seconds to load on a 15 second hit exchange, that means that the viewer has 8 seconds to look at it.  If your site takes 20 seconds to load and you post it on a 15 second hit exchange, the 49% of folks with a dialup will never see it at all no matter how beautiful it is or how great that flash intro looks!  "Here's Your Sign" as comedian Jeff Foxworthy says.  The dialup subscribers are never going to wait for your site to load, then view your site first, and then click out.  Trust me on the following fact.  Just as soon as that counter hits zero, baby they are clicking whether your site has loaded or not.  Don't ever kid yourself into thinking otherwise! 

• TIP 1:  I check my sites I want to display on a traffic exchange by using FrontPage's little timer in the lower right hand corner and if it says more than 7 seconds on a 28.8 modem is required for the page to load, I reduce the content until it loads in 7 seconds or less.  Less is better of course!  The homepage for The Hit Machine has a 7 second load time! 

• TIP 2:  I have learned to use TEASER pages on the exchanges that (hopefully) grab the attention of the viewer.  These TEASER pages load fast with just enough information to lead the viewer into clicking on the link for the slower loading full page with all the graphics and banner ads, sound and flashy doo-dads.  Some people call these "DOORWAY PAGES" or "POSTCARD PAGES"  or more recently the term "SPLASH PAGE" came into fashion, but they are actually more correctly in longstanding advertising terminology "TEASER" ADS.  These attention grabbing tease pages are nothing new.  Teasers have been used since advertising began.  They SHOULD tease you into clicking to see the slower loading main page.  (A true "doorway page" is technically a page you build to specifically cater to one particular search engine and has nothing to do with Traffic Exchanges at all!  Yet, some people often call "teaser ads" "doorway pages" anyway.  Call them whatever you want, but use them whenever your main page is slow to load.)  Always set up the links in your Teaser Pages to open in a new window.  Click HERE for one example of a teaser page I have used for a site that took far too long to load.  It is stark, but it loads in a fraction of a second. 

• Tip 3:  I'm seeing lots of exchanges offering SPLASH pages, but some of these SPLASH pages are so graphic intensive that they take longer to load than the actual sign up page!  Sure they are pretty...and pretty slow loading too!  Keep your TEASER or SPLASH page to under 2 seconds load time! 

• Rule 3 regards the use of ROTATORS & pop-up ads.  Rotators are very cool tools.  I use several different ones for different applications.  However, I won't use any rotator that has an ad for anyone else on it.  I call these CLEAN rotators, that means it is a rotator that shows ONLY my page and nothing else to distract the viewer.  With free rotators that also display banner ads for someone else, remember that while you are showing your ad for the new "Whatagimmick 4800" there could also be a banner ad from a competitor who is selling the same "Whatagimmick 4800" at a cut-throat price posted right there on the banner ad.  That is a big "ouchie".  Also, some of these rotating banners plant cookies for their referral link inside the viewers computer which gives credit to that banner link EVEN when they click on YOUR link for the same product weeks later!  Beware of using someone else's banners on YOUR pages. 

I only use "clean" rotators on all exchanges that allow them.  I love them.  It is far easier to log into the rotator control panel and change one link there, than it is to log into 275 different traffic exchanges to change the very same link 275 different times.  But, some unscrupulous advertisers misuse rotators by hiding frame breakers and other term violating sites in them.  This often leads administrators to ban rotators altogether which is very bad for the honest people.   Also, some rotators are faster loading than others.  IMPORTANT:  Keep in mind also that if your rotator service ever has a server problem that you will be showing blank error pages on every hit exchange where that rotator is posted as a target URL.  It is a risk I'm willing to take though for the convenience.  For links to rotator services that I use, see the Webmaster Links page from the main menu.   

• TIP 1:  By using a rotator on some exchanges, you'll be reducing the number of hits you get daily!  Some exchanges will only show a specific URL one time to the same visitor in the same day.  Since a rotator uses the same URL to display all your sites, that visitor will only see one of your sites at the most that day from each rotator you post.  If you had listed all of your sites individually a visitor might have seen more of them since they all have different URL's.  So, to circumvent this issue, use MULTIPLE rotators!  Listing two can double your exposure, using three will triple exposure and so on.  Using multiple rotator services also mitigates your lost traffic should one rotator service have a server outage.

• TIP 2:  To increase your displays of your hottest program pages, upload the same page to two or even more different URL's and list all these different URL's in the exchanges!  The pages will look and behave exactly the same, but to the traffic exchange script, they are different sites!  This way you can "trick" the traffic exchange script into showing the same page to the same viewer twice or more in the same day!  Ever thought of doing that?  Hey, that's why I'm here!

• TIP 3:  Why use only ONE rotator in a traffic exchange?  I use as many as four rotators in some exchanges that allow rotators!  Some rotators are loaded with different categories of pages but others are exact duplicates.  I have one rotator that is nothing but traffic exchange referral pages.  I run that one for about 5% of my traffic right now.  I have another rotator that is nothing but my personal products for use on manual exchanges.  Yet another is affiliate marketing pages for use on automatic exchanges that burn bandwidth like a bonfire.  Still another is viral marketing pages.  You can also link from one rotator to another!  For example, in my rotator that I use for manual exchanges, I have entered the URL of my viral traffic exchange referral rotator.  When a hot new exchange launches, I put it in all the rotators for a while, then reduce it to running in the manual traffic referral rotator after a few weeks.

For the same reason that I won't use a rotator that displays other people's ads, I don't use popup ads on entry.  This just makes the viewer less responsive to your page in general and slows down your site's load time which is a very bad thing to do. 

Dave's First Law of Popups:  Everyone but you hates your pop-ups.  I used to sell popup generating software.  It sold well.  If you simply must use pop-ups, use pop-ups on exit because you've already lost the sale by then.  There are exceptions to every rule.  The only exception to this one is to use pop-ups on entry when you want absolutely no chance that the viewer is going to have anything to do with you or your product.  They see your page for only a few seconds anyway, so why obscure it with something that only annoys the visitor? 

I honestly don't think pop-ups are very effective on the traffic exchanges any longer because so many people have pop-up killers running.  If you are using any free hosting service you are probably plagued with pop-up ads on entry and you can't turn them off.  Instead, we recommend that you use cheap paid hosting like the hosting service on our Webmaster Links page.  If you can't afford $4.00  a month for hosting, you might have to deal with pop-ups.  But frankly $4.00 a month is a very small price to pay for no pop-ups and there is no valid reason to use free hosting when you can get pop-up free hosting for $4 a month.  You spend far more than that for electricity to run one computer!  You'll also be able to get your own .com email addresses out of the deal.

In case you haven't heard, the new Windows operating system coming to replace XP is officially called "VISTA" and contains an all new Internet Explorer with a pop up killer built right in.  Microsoft decided to include this new pop-up busting IE browser feature in an update to XP which is called "XP RELOADED" by insiders but is officially titled "XP Service Pack 2."  This SP2 update to all versions of XP is out and has been automatically installed through the windows update feature of the XP operating system on almost all XP machines by now.  The new "Vista" system itself is in BETA PHASE 2 testing at this time and probably will be out no later than early 2007.  Bill Gates apparently hates pop ups too, so Microsoft rushed out the new Internet Explorer pop up blocker in the XP SP2 update.  Pop-ups have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel!  Start abandoning them now!  As ineffective as they are when they work, it is going to get rapidly worse.  I should point out however that java pop-ups like FLY-IN ADS and INSTANT BUZZ ads still work on the new Internet Explorer, but I don't recommend them either.  They simply obscure your primary website's message and frustrate the visitor.  They also increase the load time for your site which is a bad thing! 

• Rule 4 requires first that you set a goal of how many pages you are going to surf each day.  Myself, I surf 50.  You might want to start with 20 at first and then work yourself up (or down) to whatever number you can routinely handle.  When I say that I surf 50 sites a day, I mean that I surf approximately 30 different manual hit exchanges for 50 clicks each.  That really is a total of 1,500 manual clicks per day.  If I thought of the task as requiring 1,500 clicks I would never do it!  But by saying "I'm surfing 50 clicks" I can get it done.  It is all in your head anyway!

Sometimes I even surf up to 50 manual exchanges at 50 pages each per day for a total of 2,500 clicks when I'm in "the zone" or if I've skipped a day I need to make up.  Once you set your goal you have to stick to it.  It is easier to stay caught up than it is to catch up, so discipline is important!  As the old sayings go, "plan your work and work your plan," and "that which does not kill me only makes me stronger."  Some sites will move you to inactive status if you don't surf enough each week.  By surfing every exchange at least 50 times every week I'll always stay active.  (Whenever your account is inactive you will not be getting hits to your sites and some sites will not credit your referrals to you!) 

• Rule 5 is really Rule 4-b.  If you can't surf one day, you have to make it up the next day!  Otherwise you get so behind that you will never catch up!  When you skip a day, you are cheating YOURSELF out of business! 

• Rule 6 is a real sore spot with lots of honest surfers.  I'm probably preaching to the choir here, but cheaters never prosper.  Cheaters who are caught not only never prosper but they also get banned.  One manual exchange that I really enjoyed, SNYGL, closed around June 20, 2004 and in their "farewell" email they cited cheating as the reason.  Cheaters hurt everyone, including themselves.  There is software called "AUTO HITS MACHINE" out there for sale along with other variations of other cheating software.  It has NOTHING to do with this site or our surfing practices, other than they stole our name.  You may be tempted to try this software, but it is very unethical.  I look at who is selling it whenever I see an ad for it.  That way I know who is a crook and who isn't! 

• Anyone who will cheat a traffic exchange out of something that is free anyway will cheat you out of your money the very first chance they get.

When one hit exchange bans you and brands you a cheater, they can put your name in circulation on "THE LIST" which details all cheaters by their IP and email addresses.  Get your name or IP address on this list and you'll find yourself getting booted from the other exchanges for even a minor infraction or sometimes for no reason at all.  You will also find it downright impossible to get approved to join other exchanges. 

The hit exchange webmasters are a surprisingly tight knit bunch and they do communicate among themselves more often than most surfers probably realize.  Also, some webmasters are running up to 25 different major exchanges.  I had one manual exchange webmaster tell me once that my time was being wasted on one of his sites because the cheaters were burning up all my honestly earned credits with auto-cheating software.  He eventually shut that site down.  (This site did not have any "action link" protection at all.) 

• Rule 7 is just another way to cheat.  Some people like to post their start link from one traffic exchange as the target URL on another exchange.  This is so stupid!  They are so easily caught because their user name and start page link are right there!  Someone will report you to BOTH SITES and you will get BUSTED.  Don't even think about it, unless you really want to get banned at record speed from two exchanges at ONCE.  (see rule 6, paragraph 2). 

END OF LESSON NUMBER 2. 

TAKE A BREAK HERE IF YOU NEED ONE!

"Enough Preaching Already!   How Do I Get Hits?"

OK.  Here's how I do it.  This is a condensed explanation of the method I've evolved into after four years of trial and error and more trials and more errors.  No one did this for me, so you are getting a tremendous advantage here!

First- Download and install either combination of the following.  The freewares CRAZYBROWSER and FIREFOX or download and install the freewares MAXTHON and FIREFOX browsers.  You'll find links to all four tools on the WEBMASTER LINKS page of this website.  These are the browsers you will use for most of your surfing! 

CrazyBrowser, Maxthon and Firefox function just like Internet Explorer or Netscape with three major differences.

• Difference 1-  Each have some built in popup killer capability. 

• Difference 2-  Each allows you to build GROUPS of start links and start an entire group with only one click. 

• Difference 3-  Each allows you to open multiple tabbed pages within one single browser.  If I tried to open 35 Internet Explorer windows my processor would be southern fried extra crispy!  Instead of opening 35 windows what CrazyBrowser, Maxthon & Firefox do is open many tabbed pages in one browser window instead of completely separate windows.  So, it is no problem to open 20 Firefox tabs on any decent XP computer.

Now the next few paragraphs make an IMPORTANT POINT so read them carefully! The old CRAZYBROWSER and the new MAXTHON browsers both are based on Windows Internet Explorer, so they suffer from the same security vulnerabilities.  Meanwhile FIREFOX is based on the MOZILLA browser which is a completely different animal! MOZILLA is also the basis for the NETSCAPE browser by the way. 

People who DESIGN viruses, Adware, Spyware, automatically installing programs nobody wants and other nasty creations want their garbage installed on as many computers as possible.  An overwhelming majority, over 80%, of people use INTERNET EXPLORER.  Therefore these scoundrels always set up their attacks for Internet Explorer.  FIREFOX and other Mozilla based browers are functionally immune from all these nasty things.  So, it is best to use FIREFOX as your PRIMARY surfing tool.  A SMALL number of traffic exchanges are Internet Explorer dependent and will ONLY work on an Internet Explorer based browser like MAXTHON or the old CRAZYBROWSER.  Most of the IE dependent ones are probably thinking of updating their sites to work with Firefox so by the time you read this they may have changed.

NOTE!  Recently a similar new freeware product called Avant Browser came onto the scene.  Our tests of this product were very disappointing with frequent crashes and lockups during all tests with 12 or more tabbed windows open on three different machines, even the "beast" that we custom built just for surfing. 

We recommend Firefox, Maxthon & CrazyBrowser because while certainly not perfect, they are far more stable for us on our machines than Avant Browser which we ultimately wound up uninstalling in fairly short order.  Your results may vary however, so feel free to compare CrazyBrowser, Maxthon, Firefox & Avant Browsers yourself if you wish.  Please do let me know the results of your comparison!  MAXTHON is VERY promising and we have tested it but we haven't switched over 100% to it yet as we have about 200 bookmarks to move from CrazyBrowser.  But based on our tests we think MAXTHON has some stability improvements over CrazyBrowser and it is likely we will switch over 100% eventually. 

This bears repeating.  USE FIREFOX for every exchange which functions correctly with it.  If it doesn't load, you can't click or you aren't getting credits load it into MAXTHON or CrazyBrowser and you'll see that it works fine.  You'll need to surf that site with one of those IE based browsers instead of FIREFOX.  Don't be dismayed at how many exchanges do not support Firefox yet, just use MAXTHON or CrazyBrowser for them.  It takes time to move links, test them and keep track of it all, but it is WORTH IT.

• INFO:  The maximum number of tabbed Firefox, Maxthon or Crazybrowser windows you can open depends upon your operating system (XP is best), your processor's speed & capacity (P4 or Athlon is best), what programs you have running in the background such as anti-virus, and is heavily dependent upon your machines available RAM.  Memory is cheap and we use 2GB on our best machine, both our other older machines are loaded to their maximum RAM capacity.  If your machine starts running slowly you may have too many tabs open for your machine's capacity so close a few.  Again it will take some experimentation to see what your machine can handle.  We do use a Windows 98 AMD 300 machine made in 1998 to surf some, we just can't open as many tabs on it!  So if you have an old machine you aren't using much, drag it out and use it too.  There's nothing wrong with surfing on 2, 3 or even 4 computer screens that are side by side! That is exactly what I do with four screens here.  As long as you can see the screen you aren't cheating, just make sure your internet connection can handle it.  DSL or Cable is preferable for multiple computer surfing.  You'll just need to add a router and hook your computers into the router!

MORE INFO!  If you are using CrazyBrowser, another product we recommend you download and use in your surfing is AI ROBO FORM.  Download it free also from the Webmaster Links page and you'll only have to type in your surf site passwords once!  A great time saver and there's no adware or spyware with it as there is with other similar software like Gator.  It is free to try and does speed up login to those exchanges that do require you to login before surfing.  There is a charge if you want to use it beyond the trial period.  FIREFOX and MAXTHON have their own PASSWORD REMEMBERING SOFTWARE INCLUDED!

Third-  Now that you have all the software you'll need let's build YOUR CUSTOM SURFING SYSTEM!  Open your NOTEPAD program, WORD or any word processing program and create 6 different files.  Label them as follows:

1- Easy Auto Surf Start

2- Login Auto Surf Start

3- Auto Surf Referral

4- Easy Manual Surf Start

5- Login Manual Surf Start

6- Manual Surf Referral

7- CRAZYBROWSER or MAXTHON AUTO

8- CRAZYBROWSER or MAXTHON MANUAL

There are two basic kinds of traffic exchanges, automatic and manual.  There also are two subgroups of those, easy and login.  This means that there are really four basic groups of traffic exchanges.  We suggest creating a place to list your start links for each group plus a page for referral links for the manual and automatic groups.  You could also create a folder labeled "banners" for banner links from those exchanges that have good looking banners you might want to use, but it is not required at this time. 

TIP:  "Easy Surfers" are traffic exchanges with a start link that you click and then "WHAM" you are surfing with no login required. 

 "Login to Surf" traffic exchanges require you to login with your user name and password and then click a "SURF" link on the control panel. 

It is good to keep them separated that way because it is handy to have all your EASY surf sites ready for when you have a few minutes to kill but not a great while to spend logging in before you can get started surfing.  I tend to surf the "EASY SURFERS" more than the "LOG-IN's."

• TIP 1:  Often the sites that require you to login to surf are the same ones which do not automatically assign credits to your sites, so be sure to check when you login that you have credits assigned to the links you want to get hits. 

• TIP 2:  There is no advantage to saving up hits since exchanges can go out of business and some take longer than others to deliver your traffic.  So assign your credits each time you login!

Fourth-  As you sign up for hit exchanges, place the surf link and the referral link on the appropriate pages in your document file after testing out the site to see precisely which category it falls into AND WHETHER OR NOT IT WORKS WITH FIREFOX.  I put the user name and password for each site into my referral file also.  If a site won't surf correctly with FIREFOX, then put it into the appropriate CrazyBrowser or MAXTHON file.   

• TIP 1:  After every session where you make changes to these files, back them up onto a removal storage media such as a floppy so that if your computer gets toasted you still have all your links.  I keep my backup copy in an external hard drive and keep an additional copy on a floppy.  I'm not losing all those links!  

• TIP 2:  Some admins change their sites from auto to manual or vice-versa at their whim and don't bother to tell anyone.  So you might think they are a manual site, when they have actually just added an automatic option!  Some change from one system to the other with little or no notice.  Others work as either an auto or manual exchange depending on whether you want to surf for manual hits or auto-surf for auto-surf hits.  So, always TEST the site before entering it into a group to see how it is working at the present time.      

Fifth-  Start signing up for exchanges from our Manual & Auto Surfer pages!  I would start with the sites rated "A+" first and then work my way down the list as time allows. 

• TIP:  If you want to build big downlines fast, promote the NEWER exchanges as you will get more signups. 

Sixth-  Now it is time to start building groups in your Crazybrowser or MAXTHON, here are instructions PRECISELY SPECIFIC to Crazybrowser, but the FIREFOX and MAXTHON setups are VERY similar.  You'll have no trouble adapting these strategies to Firefox or Maxthon. 

FIRST, go into you individual text files for Login and EZ surfers.  Divide the TOTAL NUMBER of links you have by SEVEN.  That is how many you'll need to surf EVERY day to maintain your traffic properly.  DO NOT PUT MORE THAN TEN SITES into a group at first.   

1. Open Crazybrowser. 

2. Left Click "GROUPS" and from the drop down menu Left Click on "ORGANIZE GROUPS". 

3. In the widow that comes up, Right Click anywhere and from the drop down menu Left Click on "NEW FOLDER". 

4. Name this new folder "Easy Manual Monday" and press enter. 

5. Repeat the process for groups to use on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, etc. 

6. Now start over and this time name files "Login Manual Monday" and repeat as before. 

7. You now should have fourteen different manual groups. 

If you are going to use Autosurfers, repeat the entire 7 step process for folders named "Easy Auto Monday", etc and "Login Auto Monday", etc.  When complete, you should have a total of 28 folders if you are doing both manual and automatic exchanges.

An alternate option is just to copy each URL you wish to put into a group one at a time into the browser and press "ENTER" to open the site.  They will automatically open in a new tabbed window every time you do it.  Once you have the desired number of tabbed windows open, click on GROUPS, then click on SAVE ALL PAGES AS A GROUP and name the group whatever you like.  This might be easier for some people than the previous seven step process.  Just do whichever works best for you. 

There is virtually no limit to the number of groups you could create.  If you wanted to organize them by your own personal titles, that is fine!  Just set your groups up in a manner so that you can get organized for your traffic needs now and leave allowances for growth in the future! 

So if I have more than 70 links, what do I do?  My MONDAY MANUAL group became full, so I set up a "MONDAY MANUAL 2" group.  Then I have TWO manual groups to surf every Monday! That solved the problem for a while.  But lately with over 350 manual surfs to visit I've started redesigning my personal system.  Some surfs have weekly requirements and some monthly.  I've decided I'll have FIVE different manual groups for each day of the week!  There will be an "EVERY MONDAY" group, a "First Monday" group, a "Second Monday" group, a "Third Monday" group and a "Fourth Monday" group.  If it is the second Monday of the month  I'll be surfing both the "EVERY MONDAY" and the "SECOND MONDAY" groups.  In the rare months with a FIFTH Monday, I'll take the day off or play some catchup.     

Give it some thought and figure out how you really surf and set up CrazyBrowser or MAXTHON to meet your needs.  They are quite flexible.  So DO SOME PLANNING IN ADVANCE and PRE-DIVIDE your surf links into groups before loading them into the browsers. 

Seventh-  Let's begin to fill your groups up! 

1. Now go to your document file of EASY start page links and copy and paste the first one into the Crazybrowser URL address window. 

2. Click ENTER. 

3. Once the page starts loading Left Click on GROUPS.

4. Left Click on ADD TO GROUP, then Left Click on the EASY group to which you wish to add that exchange.

5. Left Click OPEN to finish placing that link into the group you selected.  That page will now load whenever you click that group button until you remove it! 

6. Do the same until you have built a group of about 5 to 7 links. 

7. Now close Crazybrowser down.  Then reopen it and click on the group tab and then click on the name of the group you just created. 

See how it works?  CrazyBrowser and MAXTHON are tremendous time savers once you have your groups arranged the way you like them.  Now just click the tabs at the top of the browser window to move through the various sites.  No more ALT/TAB required!  It is very fast and efficient!  And it is easy to add, delete or move around links with a little practice.  (HINT:  Try pressing the "CONTROL" and "TAB" buttons simultaneously to rotate through the tabs to really speed up your clicking!) 

Eighth-  I have a handful of select traffic exchanges entered into a group which I surf EVERY single day of the week.  These are what I consider the "MUST SURFS" for me.  I run TS25, SAFARI HITS, WOLF SURFER, TRAFFIC PODS, HITPULSE, WEBMASTERQUEST, MYSTICAL MAZE, RAGINGBULL and 123CLICKS every single day.  Once I got those main sites added to the groups for each day of the week, I started adding in the other traffic exchanges.  Some sites I surf 2 or 3 days a week, while some other manual exchanges, especially the newer exchanges and those that deliver hits very slowly, I surf only one day per week or every other week just to maintain active status. 

Do the same with your automatic sites if you wish to run autosurfers.  I run 126hits, Autohits.dk & AutoSurfPro every single day, so they are in a group for every single day of the week.  Some others are in 2 or 3 groups and some of the newer sites I'll surf just one day every month.  Use your own judgment here and remember you can change the links within your groups whenever you like.

Ninth-  Refer friends!  Refer contacts!  Refer new signups!  This way you'll start earning hits whenever your downline earns hits.  This is a win-win situation!  Your friends get traffic and they are also earning you traffic.  It doesn't cost them anything at all!  So refer away! 

• TIP:  Early on, I started using two of the VIRAL TRAFFIC programs and they were effective.  I now use 13 different viral programs.  You can get links to all of the viral traffic programs I use on the Webmaster Links page from the main menu.  They are easy!  You just signup, edit your links and then post your viral traffic referral page in the hit exchanges.  They work and will help you build your downline!  Even when you are just starting out, they are a great free tool!  With a viral traffic program you can promote all the best traffic exchanges at the same time!

Tenth- My Legal Secret Weapon!  Why use ONLY one computer when you can use two or three or even more?  Especially if you have a broadband connection, you can connect two or more computers to a switcher/router which costs about $50 (sometimes less on sale or used on eBay) and run them all at once with little speed loss.  I run two all the time and three or even four some of the time.  To surf the traffic exchanges you don't need the latest and greatest machine either.  I saw a pair of IBM 2153 computers sell for $85 total on eBay recently and they are just fine for working the traffic exchanges.  (One of my auxiliary machines is an IBM 2153, but I've put an 80 gig hard drive in it and added the maximum amount of ram it supports.)  If you are considering buying an extra computer to multiply your surfing, here are some suggested minimum requirements:  A Windows 98 machine with a 300 mhz processor, 128mb ram (the more the better), 10/100 nic (network interface card) and a monitor.  Or even better would be an XP machine with 800 mhz processor, 256 mb ram (the more the better), 10/100 NIC (network interface card) and a monitor.  You can often find good bargains locally, on eBay or maybe you already have an old computer you aren't using that would be just perfect for surfing automatic exchanges.  Use two computers and you double your effectiveness, three and you can triple it!  With three computers you can autosurf on two of them while manual surfing on the third.  Now that turns you into a real Hit Machine!  And it is all legal!

Tenth-  Finally, build your own mini-version of The Hit Machine listing all your good traffic exchange referral links and post it in the exchanges!  (Naturally you can't call it "The Hit Machine", so think up some other catchy name!)  Viral Traffic programs are good, but after a person has seen ANY site 20 gazillion times they will start ignoring it.  You were attracted to The HIT MACHINE home page because it was unique and slightly different from the other sites you've seen today.  So, make your own traffic exchange link page as different looking as possible.  Cookie cutter sites only work for so long and then everyone gets burned out on seeing them and basically just tune them out faster than a screaming car dealer commercial on the radio.  This site started out as a simple one page list of my referral links and you can build your own too. 

END OF LESSON NUMBER 3. 

TAKE A BREAK HERE IF YOU NEED ONE!

Critical Safety Information Follows!

Ok, that's the shortened, condensed, Readers' Digest version of how I do it.  Would you have paid $19.95 or $149 for all of that information?  If you have any questions, just ask through the contact link above.  If I don't answer right away, it is because I'm surfing!  I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Thanks for visiting our site and Happy Surfing!